Franz Conrad Graf von Hötzendorf was the most honored Austrian soldier of World War One.
That sounds pretty good, but his political and military attitudes were constantly criticized,
his life was full of ups and downs, and his legacy remains highly controversial. But he
was a prime mover behind the beginning of the war and Austria’s main military leader,
and since we mention him in the show all the time, today we’ll get to know him a little better.
My name is Indy Neidell and welcome to The Great War Bio series “Who did what in WW1”
with our big star today, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf.
Franz Xaver Joseph Conrad Graf von Hötzendorf was born on November 11, 1852, in Penzing
near Vienna. He comes from an family of officers and officials that had been raised to the
nobility in 1815. His father Franz Xaver Conrad was a conservative who participated in the
Battle of Leipzig and fought revolutionists in Vienna in 1848. His father had actually
already retired when Conrad was born, though, and his mother, who was 32 years younger than
his father, gave him a strict Christian upbringing.
He attended school in Vienna until 1863 and then cadet school in Hainburg. During the
autumn of 1867, he went to the Theresian military academy and three years later, as a lieutenant,
he left the academy to join a shore patrol battalion. In 1874, he went to Military school
in Vienna and graduated two years later, ending his general staff training. When Austria-Hungary
occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, Conrad had his first experience in the field there,
distinguishing himself both there and later while taking part in suppressing the rebellion
in South Dalmatia in 1882. By 1883, he was Chief of Staff of the 11th Infantry Division
in Lviv, also known as Lemberg, also known as L’vov. It was there that he married his
fiancee Vilma, with whom he had four sons.
For the next few years he was a tactics instructor in military school and wrote military tactical
theory and he became known for his ideas far beyond the borders of the empire. Soon, he
would take command of his first infantry regiment and put his innovations into practice. If
you want to learn about Conrad’s tactical ideas, go read his books, but suffice to say-
he was listened to, and because he was especially diligent and always active, he stood out among
his cohorts and came to the attention of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Now, the Archduke favored
organizing the army along the same lines as Conrad, and so he used his influence with
Emperor Franz Josef to have Conrad made Chief of Staff of the army in 1906. Thing is, his
ideas were pretty controversial. For example, he wanted pre-emptive wars against both Serbia
and Italy, which caused huge arguments between himself and the Foreign Minister Count Aehrenthal
and even the emperor and Conrad was eventually forced to resign in 1911.
However, he was rehired to the same post in late 1912 and continued his agitating for
war; his list now including Romania. His general plan, and it was his plan throughout his career
was to fight off smaller countries before they would get the chance in allying with
Russia, and expand, expand, expand.
Now, the foreign minister and the emperor both rejected this and supported a policy
of peace. Conrad, though, was pretty monominded on the subject- in the year before WWI broke
out, he petitioned the Emperor to make war no fewer than 30 times. His relationship with
both the emperor and Franz Ferdinand soured, as you may imagine, and when he began an affair
with a married woman, who would later become his second wife, Conrad’s ship was really
starting to sink.
And then Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. And then Conrad had the war he had always
wanted. But the Imperial army had huge problems; in spite of Conrad’s urging to innovate
and organize, he did not think much at all of modern rapid-fire weaponry, and the Empire
had not spent enough money on the army to modernize it in any case. In fact, Great Britain
spent more money on her army than Austria, even though it was like a fifth the size and
the Imperial army lagged behind its contemporaries in many ways. And the higher ranks were riddled
with incompetent career officers stuck in the past. Oskar Potiorek comes to mind; who
bungled the invasions of Serbia and humiliated his nation shortly after the war broke out.
Here’s a spoiler alert for fans of our weekly episodes who don’t want to know what happened
later in the war yet- STOP WATCHING NOW!!!
Okay, the winter 1914-1915 was grim for Conrad and the Empire and Russia had them on the
ropes, but thanks to a big infusion of German help, the combined Austro-German Gorlice-Tarnow
Offensive turned things around in a flash and Conrad’s troops pushed the Russians
back to their own territory. His army occupied big chunks of what is now Poland, finally
conquered Serbia and Montenegro, and repelled Romania.
He was riding high, but like I said, his life was a series of ups and downs. Now, Conrad
supported annexation of Serbia and Montenegro, right? But the Hungarian part of the dual
monarchy, Austria-Hungary, thought this would lead to a serious imbalance of power. Conrad
by this point couldn’t keep his big mouth shut. He alienated the emperor and his court,
he suffered a string of new military setbacks, his relationship with his German allies deteriorated
constantly as did his relationship with his own troops, and the final straw was the death
of the Emperor in 1916. The new Emperor, Karl I, had bluntly told Conrad before his accession
that the mismanagement of the army by the high command couldn’t be fixed until Conrad
was replaced, so the writing was on the wall. So even though Conrad was promoted to Field
Marshall in November 1916, just after Karl’s ascension to the throne, Karl himself took
controls of the army and navy combat units, and Conrad was dismissed as Chief of Staff
on March 1, 1917.
He requested retirement, but the Emperor instead put him in charge of one of the armies on
the Italian front in the Tyrol. However, after the bloody failure of the Austrian springtime
offensives against the Italians in 1918, Conrad was finally dismissed for good in July, with
the entire empire condemning the army’s leadership and associating Conrad with the
war in a nation that mostly wanted peace at this point.
After his dismissal he was made a Count by the Emperor and placed in command of the Royal
Guards in Vienna, so he still was honored officially, but postwar, and post the collapse
of the empire, he became a bitter and depressed man, denying any personal responsibility for
the outbreak and outcome of the war and blaming the Imperial court for not listening to his
ideas over the years. He retired in December 1918 and began to write his memoirs.
On August 25th, 1925, Conrad von Hörtzendorf died in Bad Mergentheim, Germany, and when he was
buried in Vienna the following week, over 100,000 mourners turned out to see him laid to rest.
Conrad very much lived a soldiers’ life, and he dwelled constantly on reforming the
Imperial army, which in almost every way had fallen behind the armies of the other great
powers, but while he certainly improved organization and training techniques, his disapproval of
the tools and realities of modern war, and above all his unbreakable “rightness”
sabotaged his career again and again and caused his armies enormous casualties. And he never
took responsibility for his mistakes, be they tactical, political, or military.
On the other hand, his written works, published in several languages, made him known and honored
worldwide as a military expert. It’s safe to say that there are only perhaps a handful
of people in Habsburg Imperial history who could give rise to as much discussion and
as much difference of opinion as Conrad von Hotzendorf. Renowned as a strategist, despised
as an intriguer, sometimes blamed for the war itself, and post-1918 sometimes declared
an almost mythical military genius. Conrad von Hötzendorf
Whatever you think of him, he was one of the most important figures of the entire war,
even though compared to many of his contemporaries his name his slipped into obscurity. But what
do you think? Tell us in the comments below and if you want to see how his plans spiralled
into disaster, click right here.
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